A Failed Nation - Thirteen Nations

American Political History · Sep 3, 2026 · 26m

There were thirteen United States — and to the rest of the world, there were thirteen nations. This is the story of what that cost. In 1785, pirates out of Algiers seized two American ships and enslaved their crews, and the United States could do nothing to free them: no navy, no money, no power to answer. In London, John Adams sought a commercial treaty with Britain and was quietly refused, because Britain had grasped the essential thing about the new republic — that a treaty with Congress bound nothing, since Congress could not make its own states keep it. And at home, those states taxed…